With Seth Meyers hosting the Late Night franchise and Jimmy Fallon hosting The Tonight Show franchise, this marks only the second time in the history of the franchise that the host of "Late Night" is actually older than the "Tonight Show" host; with Meyers being older than Jimmy Fallon by nine months. The first time was from 1992 to 1993 when Jay Leno was "Tonight Show" host and David Letterman was "Late Night" host (Letterman is 3 years older than Leno).

Late Night originated from NBC Studio 6A at the RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from the show's premiere in February 1982 until May 1987. Friday shows were added in June 1987 (NBC previously aired Friday Night Videos in the 12:30 am slot with occasional Late Night specials and reruns). Starting in September 1991, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was pushed back from 11:30 pm to 11:35 pm, with Letterman starting at 12:35 am, at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts.

In mid-1993, E! Entertainment Television purchased broadcast rights to Late Night. The network aired complete shows from various years five days per week from 1993 until 1996. Then Trio (owned by NBC) picked up reruns and showed them from 2002 until the channel went off the air in 2005.

A number of programs were sold by GoodTimes Entertainment in 1992–93. These episodes were stripped of the series theme, open and close. No DVD release is currently scheduled (GoodTimes went bankrupt in 2005).

A total of 1,819 shows were broadcast during its eleven and a half year run (an episode on January 16, 1991 went unaired due to pre-emption for coverage the beginning of the Gulf War; the program had already been shot before word came out of Baghdad that United States airstrikes were beginning).

Peter Ustinov was a guest on the one-shot "upside down" episode, during which the camera, mounted on a slowly revolving wheel, gradually rotated the picture 360 degrees during the course of an hour; Ustinov appeared midway through and was photographed upside down in close-up as he spoke while his host only appeared in long shots.

Upon Johnny Carson's retirement from The Tonight Show in 1992, executives at NBC announced that Carson's "permanent guest host" Jay Leno would take over Tonight, and not David Letterman. This was done against the wishes of Carson, who had always seen Letterman as his rightful successor, according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a onetime producer for both men.[2] NBC later said that Letterman's high ratings for Late Night were the reason they kept him where he was. Letterman was bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given The Tonight Show job and, at Carson's advice, left NBC after eleven years on Late Night. CBS signed Letterman to compete directly opposite Leno's Tonight Show at 11:35 PM. He moved his show over to CBS virtually unchanged, taking most of the staff, skits, and comedy formats with him. However, NBC owned the rights to the Late Night name and much of the intellectual property created for the show, forcing Letterman to rechristen his show as Late Show with David Letterman and re-title many of its signature comedy elements.

NBC was faced with an unexpected need to replace not just Letterman, but Late Night itself. The network still owned the name, but needed to essentially build a new show from scratch. The show was first offered to Dana Carvey and Garry Shandling, both of whom turned it down.[3]

O'Brien's Late Night was rushed into production and debuted on September 13, 1993, with Andy Richter as O'Brien's sidekick. The premiere episode featured John Goodman (who received a "First Guest" medal for his appearance), Drew Barrymore, and Tony Randall. The episode featured a cold open of O'Brien's walk to the studio with constant reminders that he was expected to live up to Letterman, parodying a popular sentiment expressed in the media at the time. After seeming to be unaffected by the comments, O'Brien arrives at his dressing room and cheerfully prepares to hang himself. However, a warning that the show is about to start causes him to abandon his plans. The crowd for the first show mainly consisted of family members of the crew of the show so as to ensure a positive reception.[citation needed]

O'Brien's on-camera inexperience showed and the show's first fourteen weeks were generally considered mediocre.[3] O'Brien, an unknown, was constantly at risk of being fired: NBC had him renewing short-term contracts, thirteen weeks at a time.[3] He was reportedly on the brink of being fired at least once in this period, but NBC had no one to replace him. The show, and O'Brien, slowly improved through experience, and the show's ratings gradually increased to a level which allowed O'Brien to secure a longer contract, and not have to worry about cancellation.

On March 1, 1994, Letterman appeared on Late Night as O'Brien's only guest, marking the only time that Letterman has appeared on an NBC talk show since his departure for CBS. During the interview, Letterman gave O'Brien positive reinforcement, telling him "there's nothing like this show anywhere on television" and that he was doing a terrific job as host.[5]

In 2000, Richter left Late Night to pursue his acting career. The show's comedy bits and banter had usually depended on O'Brien's interaction with Richter. O'Brien's wacky non sequitur comedy became more pronounced as he played all of his comedy and commentary directly to the audience instead of towards Richter.

Ratings and reviews continued to improve for Late Night, and in 2002, when time came to renew his contract, O'Brien had notable offers from other networks to defect.[6] O'Brien decided to re-sign with NBC, however, joking that he initially wanted to make a 13-week deal (a nod to his first contract). He ultimately signed through 2005, indicating that it was symbolic of surpassing Letterman's run with 12 years of hosting.[6]

In 2003, O'Brien's own production company, Conaco, was added as a producer of Late Night. The show celebrated its 10th anniversary, another milestone that O'Brien said he wanted to achieve with his 2002 contract. During the anniversary show, Mr. T handed O'Brien a chain with a large gold "7" on it.

O'Brien: But Mr. T, we've been on the air for ten years!
Mr. T: I know that, fool, but you only been funny for seven![7]

The show's house band was The Max Weinberg 7, led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, who also served as a sounding board for O'Brien on the show (more so after Andy Richter's departure). The other six members were Mark Pender on trumpet, Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg on trombone, Mike Merritt on bass, Jerry Vivino on saxophone and brother Jimmy Vivino on guitar, and Scott Healy on keyboard. James Wormworth served as backup drummer when Weinberg went on tour with Bruce Springsteen. With the departure of Andy Richter, Max Weinberg assumed a bigger role as an interlocutor for O'Brien's jokes. One common running gag was Max's awkwardness on camera and his apparent lack of chemistry with Conan. Weinberg was often used in sketches as well, which usually revolved around his purported sexual deviance (mostly a penchant for bedding barely legal groupies), although long running sketches also spoofed Max's lack of knowledge of current affairs.

Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg was also used as the butt of many of Conan's jokes. These humorous sketches usually revolved around LaBamba's sizeable mustache, his poor acting skills, and his alleged inability to read sheet music. Mark Pender would often sing songs on the topic of a current event, which ended with him screeching uncontrollably and climbing the risers into the audience. All members of the 7 had successful side careers as studio musicians.

As is common in the talk show format, The Max Weinberg 7 performed the show's opening and closing themes, played bumpers into and out of commercial breaks (they actually played through the entire break for the studio audience), and a short piece during O'Brien's crossover to his desk after his monologue (except for several months beginning in April 2008, where a commercial break was inserted at that point). The show's opening theme was written by Howard Shore and John Lurie (a finalist for the job as bandleader). The show's closing theme was called "Cornell Knowledge", and was lifted from Jerry and Jimmy Vivino's first album together. However, on Late Night, it was played at a much quicker tempo than the album version.

The band played a wide variety of songs as bumpers – usually popular music from a variety of eras. Weinberg sometimes took extended leaves of absence to tour with Bruce Springsteen as the drummer for his E Street Band. During his absence, temporary replacement drummers were hired (most commonly James Wormworth), and the band was led by Jimmy Vivino ("Jimmy Vivino and the Max Weinberg 7").

Joel Godard, a long-time announcer for NBC shows, was the show's announcer and an occasional comedy contributor. These comedy bits usually revolved around Godard's supposed homosexual fetishes, deviant sexual habits, substance abuse, and suicidal tendencies. The humor came in part from Godard's delivery. No matter how depressing or deviant the topic being discussed he always did so in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice, and with a huge smile plastered on his face. Several sketches ended with Godard apparently committing suicide in his announcer's booth.

Unusual for a late-night talk show, Late Night made frequent use of various costumed characters such as The Masturbating Bear, Robot on a Toilet, and Pimpbot5000. The humor in these sketches often derived from the crude construction of the characters' costumes as well as the absurdist nature of their conceptions. For example, Pimpbot5000 was a 1950s-style robot who dressed and acted in the manner of an exaggerated blaxploitationpimp, while The Masturbating Bear was a man in a bear costume wearing an oversized diaper who would inevitably begin to fondle himself to the tune of Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" when brought on stage. Many of these characters did little more in their appearances than walk across the stage or be wheeled out from behind the curtain, but some had extensive sketches on the show.

As part of O'Brien's 2004 contract renegotiation with NBC, he was tapped to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show five years later, in the summer of 2009. O'Brien's last Late Night was taped and aired on February 20, 2009. He indeed succeeded Leno and renamed the show The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 1, 2009, and resigned as host just over seven months later, a result of the 2010 Tonight Show conflict.

Jimmy's built for this kind of show. He's funny, he's charming, he's got a really good way of connecting with people. And he knows music, movies and TV really well, which is the backbone of these shows.

”

During the years between Fallon's SNL departure and the announcement that he would take over Late Night, Fallon concentrated on developing a feature film career, which Fallon himself said "really didn't work out that great."[9]

Fallon was announced as O'Brien's replacement in May 2008; at the time of the announcement, he was scheduled to debut in June 2009.[11] To help him prepare for his new Late Night host role, Michaels had Fallon perform comedy in clubs and create a series of webisodes.[9] A behind-the-scenes vlog documenting preparations for the new show launched on December 8, 2008, with new episodes being posted weeknights at 12:30 am ET.[citation needed]

The program originated from NBC Studio 6B (the original home of The Tonight Show, but which had housed the WNBC news studios since Johnny Carson had moved his show to NBC Studios in California in 1972.[12]) in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, until August 10, 2013. From August 13, 2013 until its final edition on February 7, 2014, the show originated from Studio 6A (where Letterman and O'Brien had hosted their iterations of Late Night) to accommodate the renovation of 6B in preparation for Fallon's eventual move to The Tonight Show.

The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon logo is based on the typeface Bureau Grotesque. NBC failed to correctly license the font program, causing them to be sued by the copyright holder of that program, Font Bureau, Inc. for software copyright infringement,[15] although fonts alone cannot be copyrighted.[16]

Fallon hosted his final episode of Late Night on February 7, 2014, when he welcomed Andy Samberg as his final guest. After a brief retrospective with Higgins about their time on Late Night, the show ended with Fallon playing drums and singing backup to "The Weight" behind an ensemble of The Muppets. Upon the conclusion of the song, Fallon exited Studio 6A and walked silently down the hall to Studio 6B, through a door featuring his Tonight Show logo, where his cast and crew awaited him with an ovation.[17]

On May 12, 2013, NBC officially announced that Seth Meyers would become the new host of Late Night following Fallon's exit to preside over The Tonight Show.[18]

Meyers' first episode of Late Night premiered February 24, 2014. His version of the show originates from NBC Studio 8G in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City. It marks the first time that Late Night and The Tonight Show have been produced out of the same studio facility. In fact, Meyers' studio is directly above Fallon's, meaning that the shows cannot tape at the same time due to inefficient soundproofing and elevator capacities for audience members. Late Night begins taping at 6:30 PM, roughly thirty minutes after production of The Tonight Show wraps.[19]

Meyers' version of the show is orchestrated in the traditional late night talk show format. Each show usually begins with an opening monologue, then informal chatter at the desk, a comedy bit, celebrity guest interviews, and closing with a stand-up comedian or musical guest.

The house band for Meyers' iteration of Late Night is "The 8G Band", led by eccentric actor/musician Fred Armisen, one of Meyers' former Saturday Night Live castmates. The two usually engage in a nightly exchange in which Armisen details (to great length) an absurd concept he has pioneered while Meyers plays the straight man and questions its validity. When Armisen is away from the show for various reasons (including to produce his television series Portlandia), he will sometimes appear in a taped comedy bit.

As a tribute to the many NBC affiliates that air the show on a nightly basis, Meyer's desk features one coffee mug nightly sent by each NBC affiliate which sits to his left, which varies between featuring a station's logo or morning news imaging. Also on the desk is a Matryoshka doll in the style of Bill Hader's Stefon character with a veil embellishment, originally hand-crafted by Matryoshka artist Irene Hwang and commissioned for a Saturday Night Live crew holiday gift.[20][21] Meyers and Stefon were "married" on SNL.

Head Swap: Where the heads from two celebrities are switched on another person's body.

Thank You Notes: Features Fallon writing thank you notes to random items or people.

Dance Your Hat and Gloves Off: Features audience members dancing to take gloves off their hands and a hat on their head.

Ultimate Mustache Fighter: Features two UFC-like fighters dressed as mustaches.

Wheel of Carpet Samples: Features audience members spinning a wheel of carpet samples and receiving completely random point scores.

Meyers

Venn Diagrams: Features Meyers putting two items together and having something they both have in common in the middle, like actual Venn diagrams.

Fake or Florida: Features Meyers asking audience members a crazy news story and the audience member telling Meyers if it is fake or it was in Florida.

This Week in Numbers: Features Meyers saying a number that goes along with a news story, then Meyers saying a number that goes along with a comedic news item.

Next Week's News: Features Meyers, along with emergency sidekick Dale (Tim Robinson), telling a news story from the week that they're in, then telling a comedic news story for the next week.

Instagram Filters: Features Meyers showing pictures from Instagram, then having a filter (such as Beijing or Drunk Girl filter) change the picture.

Extreme Dog Shaming: Features Meyers showing pictures of dogs holding up signs to show what they did to be shamed (for example, Meyers' dog Frisbee, was shamed because "I go to bed right after Fallon)" or "I wanted Neil Patrick Harris to host the Emmys again."

Bad Men: Parody of Mad Men with Meyers portraying the Don Draper character.

Couple Things: Features Meyers listing a "couple things" about a controversial news story.

Fred Talks: An improvised segment involving 8G Band bandleader Fred Armisen describing some ridiculous new project that he's working on, to Meyers' disbelief.

FredEx: When Armisen is away from the show, Meyers will send him a FedEx box full of props, and Armisen will produce a video that debuts on the show a few days later, using those props to create a character.

Seth's Story: Meyers tells a story, detailing something that happened to him recently.

One of the behind-the-scenes traditions of Late Night is the possession of a giant, plastic pickle by the current host. The pickle was originally sent to the Late Night offices by Letterman's staff for O'Brien and his crew, along with a note explaining that they had found the pickle in their offices when they began the show, it stayed there through their entire run, and it was only fitting that it remain there.[22]

When O'Brien went to host The Tonight Show, he left behind the pickle for Fallon along with a handwritten note, reading in part: "Whenever you're done -- which won't be for a long time -- make sure you pass it on to the next sap. Knock 'em dead." Fallon first made public the pickle tradition in one of his regular video blog segments that led up to his Late Night premiere.

During his final week hosting Late Night in early 2014, Fallon passed the pickle to Meyers during their interview, marking its first on-air appearance.[23]